Walter Curt Heads Up GOP Fundraising

Del. Jeffrey M. Frederick (Prince William), the newly elected chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, continues to shake up the leadership of the state party.

Since defeating former lieutenant governor John H. Hager for the chairman's job last weekend, many of the state party's senior staffers have resigned or been dismissed.

Frederick plans to announce today that Walter M. Curt, owner of Power Motors Inc, a Harrisonburg-based technology firm, will be the party's new finance chairman. Curt replaces Fred Malek, who resigned from his finance role at the state party last week. Malek still serves as the deputy national finance chairman for Arizona Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign.

Curt, an anti-tax activist with close ties to the conservative wing of the party, has given nearly $800,000 to GOP candidates in Virginia since 1997, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, which tracks money in state politics.

During the 2005 governor's race, Curt donated about $305,000 to Republican Jerry W. Kilgore, who was defeated by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D). Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling also received $50,000 each from Curt during their campaigns in 2005. Curt donated $50,000 to former governor James S. Gilmore III's state political action committee last year, before Gilmore was a U.S. Senate candidate, according to VPAP.

Some moderate Republicans in the state Senate may be a bit apprehensive of Curt.

In 2007, Curt and his company were the single biggest donor to Robert Sayre in his bid to unseat Sen. Emmett W. Hanger Jr. (R-Augusta) in the GOP primary. Curt and PMI gave Sayre $100,000 for his race, which became a referendum on Hanger's support for some past tax increases, but the incumbent narrowly won reelection.